Zutara Forgive Me
by Utasora
Summary: -A quiet moment in the dark between Zuko and Katara-  A brief and beautiful one-shot I wrote inspired by dA piece by Sparkley-Puffs  Western Air Temple Era / Highly Rated on my dA account


**A/N: I found this in the back piles of my old stuff on my art website, thought I'd give this another go on here. The beautiful piece of artwork that inspired this one shot is by Mary (Sparkley-Puffs on dA) and it is titled "Zutara- Promises In the Dark"! Please, go adore that piece as much as I did! :)  
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><p>Water swirled around her, glittering and bending the moonlight. Katara closed her eyes, feeling the chi flow through her as the water pushed and pulled with her hands. No other feeling in the world could compare to this, she knew for sure. To waterbend beneath a full moon felt so right and so intoxicating… It was pure ecstasy. Katara opened her eyes to the bright moonlight, drinking in the large moon looming over her. A hero and guiding spirit in many of her nation's tales, she felt it was an honor to come out to ledge of the Western Air Temple and practice her waterbending under such beauty.<p>

Katara let the water splash to the ground, knowing she could easily clean it up later. She sat in her little puddle of bending water, letting her feet dangle off the edge of the temple's platform, observing the cliff below. Thoughts dashed through her mind, none staying longer than the other. She always did her best thinking at night. She knew sleep was important, but she couldn't get enough of the humid summer air, the bright moonlight, and silence the night brought to her. She bent the water around her to splash down her front, soaking her wraps. She sighed with relief. The summer air wasn't extremely hot tonight, but she had worked up a sweat while waterbending.

Too absorbed in her own thinking, Katara failed to realize she wasn't alone. Zuko, who also couldn't sleep, had just then stepped out to the ledge, hoping some silence and a breeze might relax his mind. At first he was surprised to find Katara. It was such a late hour and he was sure she was a stickler about sleep, seeing how she always told the Avatar to get his rest. But after a few minutes of watching her sit in a puddle of water and soulfully gaze at the moon, he knew he shouldn't have been too surprised. She was a waterbender and tonight was a full moon, a time where her bending was most powerful. He could relate; the bright summer days had been fueling him, charging his energy day in and day out, to work relentlessly with the Avatar, giving him the burning passion to keep working through the sweat and heat.

Deciding he shouldn't just stand and wait for her to turn around (she was, after all, more powerful than him at the moment… he didn't want to surprise her or anything), he cleared his throat, purposely moving out of the shadow of the pillar. Katara whipped her head around with a start, thinking everyone was asleep. She rolled her eyes and turned back to the moon when she realized whom her company was.

"Any reason you're up?" she scoffed.

"Couldn't sleep. I see you have a similar problem. Must be hard to sleep when you know there's a full moon out, huh?" Zuko tried his best at light conversation. He had no energy for petty arguments with the waterbender tonight.

Katara sighed. "Yeah," she gazed wistfully up at the moon again, "It's like my body pulls me out here. My chi starts flowing and I know I want to waterbend." She swirled some of the water from the ground into a hovering spiral, watching the moonlight bounce off the twirling water.

Zuko sat a few feet from her, also letting his feet dangle off the edge. He wondered how much she hated him. Of course she would talk to him, she was too polite to not. He just wondered how much, secretly, she hated him. It wouldn't have bothered him so much if it hadn't been for the catacombs a few months ago. Those god damn catacombs! Why did they have to get stuck in that godforsaken prison together? Why couldn't he just have told her to shut up and stop crying or ignored her, like he had done with Jin? Because she had spoken about her mother, a tender spot he knew of. He had chased this girl for a year and knew nothing about her until then. He realized what he was doing. He realized he was creating lives like his own across the four nations: refugees, outcasts, children with missing parents, scars, and heartaches. But this is why he joined the Avatar and his fellow companions, was it not? Still, he felt like he had yet to make up his personal betrayal to the waterbender.

Jolting him out of thought, Katara stood from her puddle of water. She glanced at the moon, then at Zuko.

"I think I should go to bed." She had a nervous look on her face. She realized how awkward and tense the silence had fallen between them and she thought it would be better if she left Zuko to his own thoughts. She turned to go when she felt something grab her arm.

Zuko turned her around, not even knowing what he was doing. He knew he had to make it up to her somehow. One hand still on her upper forearm, he rested the other on her shoulder, looking straight into her eyes. Katara became quickly and painfully aware she was still soaked and Zuko had only pants on. Inches from each other, Zuko searched her eyes.

"I'm sorry," he breathed, a pained look passing over his face. He wanted more than anything in that moment for her to forgive him.

"Huh?" Katara head was clouded. She could feel the heat from Zuko's bare body surrounding her, pulling her in. She could feel his warm, sweet breath skitter across her face. She had never actually been this close to him before.

"I'm sorry. For everything." Zuko blushed and looked down, hearing those words he rarely said to anyone except his uncle flow out of his mouth. If saying sorry was so easy, why was he blushing? He glanced up again to look at Katara, the reason dawning on him. Her cheeks were flushed and her smooth, tan skin glittered as water beaded on her bare stomach and shoulders. She smelled like fire lilies and her wide, blue eyes sparkled like sea glass in the moonlight. It hit Zuko quite suddenly why he was acting like this. The waterbender, the girl he had been chasing for over year, was beautiful. He trusted her, shared something important with her. He was in love with Katara.

Katara, quite unaware of this revelation, began to squirm. She had never been this close to Zuko before, especially not in just her wraps. Her cheeks flushed from embarrassment. She looked up just in time to catch Zuko staring at her, his eyes soulful and lips parted slightly, as though thinking. Again, his sweet breath swept over her face and she couldn't help herself as she leaned towards him, entranced by the scent.

Letting go of all thought and reason, Zuko put one hand behind Katara's neck and the other on her shoulder, pulling her up against his warm chest. Katara felt herself leaning even further into Zuko, raising her chin so her face was only inches away from his. Her breath became heavy and ragged and she couldn't stop herself from looking in his amber eyes.

"I-I forgive you," Katara stammered, her eyes fluttering and her lips quivering. She shivered as she placed her hands on his chest.

"Thank you." Zuko closed the last few inches between them and softly kissed Katara. Gasping inwardly, she knew the full moon and waterbending could never offer a feeling like this…


End file.
